Few annuals are more admired than this, the inside of the flower is of delicate cream colour, having the centre embellished with a rich purple velvet, on which its golden antheræ are proudly conspicuous.
It is said to be a native of Italy; a Cape variety, differing in hairiness and a few other particulars is mentioned by MILLER, and considered by him as a species.
The least possible trouble attends the raising of this beautiful annual, as it readily ripens its seeds, which falling on the ground produce plants in abundance the ensuing spring; to have it flower as long as may be, it will be proper to sow it at two or three different periods.
_Cal._ 5-partitus. _Cor._ rotata. _Filamenta_ barbata, _Caps._ 2-locularis.
CELSIA _linearis_. _Jacq. Collect. v. 2. n. 210._ _Icon. v. 2. t. 13._
CELSIA _linearis_ foliis ternis linearibus denticulatis.
We here present our readers with the figure of a plant newly introduced from France by Mr. WILLIAMS, Nurseryman of Paris, collected originally in Peru by Mr. DOMBEY, whose flowers, if they do not equal those of the Fuchsia already figured in elegance of form and growth, surpass them somewhat in brilliancy of colour, whence it becomes a most desirable plant for the purpose of ornament.
Professor JACQUIN, who first gave a figure and description of this plant, informs us in his Collectanea, that he received seeds of it from Professor ORTEGA of Madrid, under the name of _Celsia linearis_, which name he has adopted; and we, from respect to such authority, have continued; at the same time we must observe, that it ill accords with that genus: the blossoms while in bud fold up somewhat in the same manner as those of the Celsia, but on expansion they appear widely different; their shape indeed then becomes truly singular, resembling a half-formed imperfect corolla, its filaments are short and want the hairs which in part characterise the Celsia; its seed-vessels also are far from being round: its antheræ are large and close together, somewhat like those of the Solanum, and there is so little of inequality in them, that few students would be induced to refer its flowers to the class Didynamia.
Being a native of a warm climate, it comes to the greatest perfection here when placed in a stove in which the heat is moderate; but it will succeed very well if treated as a tender green-house plant: it does not appear to be quite so hardy as the Fuchsia, nor to flower like that plant at all seasons, but usually produces its blossoms in the latter summer months, those are succeeded by seed-vessels producing perfect seeds, by which, as well as by cuttings, the plant is propagated.